Well, I’m home now! Or, at least in my American home. I kinda feel like I left home to come to America, so I guess I can call my host family’s house my home. 🙂 My Japanese one anyway.

I dunno if I can stress this enough, but I REALLY just kinda want to go back. As I told my host family, I don’t really have anything I want to do here. On the other hand in Japan, there’s so much for me to do and learn that I can’t do as well or maybe even at all here. So…kinda wanna just hop on the next plane to Tokyo and swim if I have to to Okinawa.

Oh yeah, and this kinda ironic, but my luaggage isn’t here. It got left in…wait for it…Chicago. Again. O_< OKAY. REALLY NOW?! Not too happy about that, but oh well. It’s not like last time where there would be a quick shortage of clothing. That wasn’t too fun.

Overall, I can’t say I’m happy to be back but I’m not depressed about it. It just…happened and that was that. :p But never fear, I shall most definitely cook up an escape plan.

Just as I thought, I didn’t get on last night. So a happy belated birthday to my sister! @@ My host family decided to have a talk with me which I didn’t mind at all and listened to them talk about how they want me to come back a continue studying Japanese to get even better. They all think I’d make a good English teacher because English is my native language so I understand it and can explain it to Japanese people. The English teacher here speaks little to no Japanese. (The one for the oral English class anyway. The other one’s Japanese and speaks very good English, but she asked me about pronunciation a lot.) So because I can speak Japanese I can explain it in a language they can understand. XD But while I’m thinking about it, the Japanese English seems like it’s a really good way for me to learn Japanese. Not going to lie. I liked it a lot because the mixed improved the little phrases that imply certain things in sentences. It was like learning new grammar for me. ;P Loved it. In that class today the teacher had me read a passage for the class for pronunciation, and the teacher was laughing afterwards at all the students who’d just kinda gawd at me. Apparently they thought it was beautiful.

Oh yeah. This morning I also said my goodbye to the teachers. Kinda made it up right before hand, and everyone clapped. Then I walked out of the room and cried a little… Kept almost crying when I got back to class. ^^; I just don’t want to leave… I really don’t. I can see myself trying not to bawl at the airport tomorrow. XD Oh boy. I’ll try my best not to, but I love my host family. Since I’ve gotten here they’ve been nothing short of funny and nice.

I did caligraphy today. The teacher was SUPER nice and gave me little…idk what you call them. They’re these thick rectangles you write kanji on. So I did some practicing and wrote some kanji. I feel kinda bad because I messed one up…but oh well. Some of them I really like. 😀 Anyway, the teacher also gave me a stamp with two kanji that I picked out. It’s super cool and I’m so grateful. To everyone.

Overall the schedule today was kinda mixed up in what we did. I can say thought that I’ve got ten thousand handouts from various classes. They call worksheets and stuff here print or purinto. They’re different from American ones though because they’re not white and the paper’s really thin. It was all good though. 😀 I understood math completely, so that was so cool. They do some weird stuff without calculators, but I figured it out and the teacher was might impressed. 🙂 Guess I should pat myself on the back for that one. Some of the classes I just tuned out and studied kanji from the book the classic Japanese teacher gave me, but others I actually paid attention to. The modern literature teacher actually called on me to read and was so impressed that I could read the kanji in the book. 😛 That’s what I get for having too much time on my hands. I actually bought two new kanji books to study in America since they’re hard to get there with kanji I don’t know and I’m working on the last year of elementary school kanji. So, that’ll be good!

The students are so nice and at the end of the day threw me a party. They actually were trying to keep it a surprise, but when I already had an inkling about it and my host sister took me to the library during the last hour, I knew what was cooking. It was kinda obvious. XD But it was cool. And…again I cried. I kept on and off crying during the whole thing, but everyone thought it was so cute since I was still smiling. XD Took a lot of pictures with my tear-stained face. How lovely. Oh well. They had things from cake to pizza made by a student’s mom. The boys also gave preformed what they called an owarai. I think you can translate that like…a comedy skit? Idk. But it was so funny! And I love how one of the boys was actually willing to talk to me. He even hugged me when presenting the class gifts. He also wrote on the card with messages from people that he loves me. 😛 He’s so sweet. So yeah, the gifts from the class were things like a photoalbum with some pictures, candy that you can use to whistle, a necklace made of candy, a class photo and a card with messages from everyone. I havent’ read it yet because I know that if I do that I might cry, so I’ll do that later. I plan on writing a message to the class tonight that my host sister and give to the class on Monday. Also one for my host family, and I’m trying to keep that a secret. I’ll just leave it on the desk in the room I’ve been sleeping in so they can read it later. ^^

Oh yeah. I’ve actually be wearing a uniform for the past two days. The teacher I asked about it to get one said that actually they prefered if I wore one, but they never told me that. 😛 However, a girl from my class lent me her extra one, and EVERYONE’s been saying that it suits me. Personally, I like it. It’s actually very warm, so I don’t know what everyone’s complaining about. XD They think it’s SO COLD. I guess if I lived here for a while I’d think the same thing. I also got to wear some loafers that were sitting in the room. They’re really (SERIOUSLY) battered and such, but they worked for making the uniform work. They kinda let me keep them, so I’ll call that a present, too.

After school I went with some girls to a nearyby shopping center…and they bought me a TV guide that has Arashi in it. XD My gosh. I feel so grateful to everyone. I think that when I come back, I’m bringing more gifts from everyone since I now know what people like and such. 😀

After that, I wound up going out to eat at a very famous steak house here in Okinawa. Famous people and such go there and the food was REALLY good. I ate steak for the first time. XD It was yummy~ I wasn’t really hungry, so my host brother finished it for me. (I swear his stomache’s a black hole since he’s always finishing other people’s food. And he’s skinny, too!)

Then we went home…and I experienced an earthquake. Seriously. 😛 It was interesting, weak and fast. But it was noticable. Apparently Okinawa gets them every once in a while like the rest of Japan, but they’re all weak ones.

Well, I think that’s that. Leaving tomorrow from Okinawa at about 10:30. T_T I dun wanna go at all.

I’m coming back. 😛 For sure I’ll find some way.

This is going to be my last post in Japan. I’ll be post more things later like any interesting pictures and then a post about things I found to be interesting. Some truths about Okinawa, too. 🙂 So stay tuned for that, too.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Okinawa and really think of all my host family memebers as my family.

Anywayyyy~ Had early morning English which was interesting. The teacher had people ask me questions in English. It worked out allright I guess. Japanese people are just too shy so there weren’t any volunteers. XD I love though how someone asked me if there were any guys in the class who looked like they were my type. Unfortunately, my class has no such guy.

After that was Math…and I understood it! I feel so proud of myself~ They were doing things with increasing and decreasing for quadratic and cubic functions. We also had gym today where we decided on teams for softball…and then started watching Harry Potter. XD The sixth movie. I haven’t seen it, but believe it or not the movie was in English with subtitles. First movie I seen like that since I saw Back to the Future at the hotel. Random, but kinda long the same lines, there was a movie on last night that was German with Japanese subtitles. It was weird so I went to bed instead of watching it.

The best part of the day was…biology. Definitely interesting. We dissected a pig’s eyeball. No joke. We did. 😀 I was the eye holder person and it was so weird. It was really stick and stuck to the gloves I was wearing, but we did it! It was kinda cool if you asked me. Haven’t done something like that since…middle school when we dissected earthworms.

OH YEAH. Okay, so I find this SO funny, but the math teacher SERIOUSLY looks like Jaken from Inuyasha. I dunno if I’ve said that before, but he does! REALLY. He does. I need to take his picture. He practically sounds like him, too. So when he enters the room I say to my host sister, “JAKEN-SENSEI!”

And seriously, Japanese people are really the gift-giving type. The classic Japanese teacher gave me a kanji book to study from. Apparently I looked very bored sitting there trying to read a book for English when I was about ready to fall asleep. XD But it’s a really useful book from what I’ve been able to get out of it and I really like it. I was trying to find some more books like that at the bookstore earlier, but it was getting late so I’ll do it tomorrow or something.

After school I went out with some friends from school and we went to Kokusai Doori to do Purikura, eat soba and check out this anime shop. None of us are really into it, but it was interesting to say the least. There was even a cosplay corner…but I find cosplay too weird to appreciate. 😛 Not my cup of tea.

So yeah, that was my dad. I also received my departure information…which makes me wanna hit my head on a wall. Can I just “lose” it and say I never got it? XD That’d be so nice.

Final note:

If I don’t get on tomorrow, I want to say happy birthday to my little sister. 😛 You’re so old.

Hi hi~ Hope people aren’t missing me too much, because I don’t feel like I’m missing anything yet. The only thing I can remotely miss is the oppertunity to understand people completely all the time. But seriously, if someone could find a way for me to stay here for a while long, I’d be plenty happy and would agree in a heartbeat. 😀 I just love how here it feels like I have so much to learn that I actually find useful. Maybe not some of the class material… Seriously. I was looking at a test answer key I was given during the math class for a test I didn’t take and wondered why they even bothered. XD Why would you do any of that stuff without a calculator?

I guess another thing I can almost miss is the later time I had to get up for school. Here…I have to get up at like…5:40 now to eat breakfast and skip off to the bus at like…6:40. TOO EARLYYYYY. @@ BTW, even breakfast is huge. Seriously. My host sister keeps eating and has already been eating before I drag myself to the kitchen. I’m thoroughly impressed. 😛 Makes me feel like a whimp. Even when I’m starving I can barely eat as much as they do here.

Speaking of food…my family gets a kick out of telling people I’ll eat anything. I blame my motto that until something makes me throw up, it’s all good. 😀 And all the food’s decent or better. Problem is my lack of appetite at meal times. Kinda wish I could eat when I’m hungry like at home, but whatever works.

Overall, it’s all good. Class can be a little boring when we aren’t doing anything or it’s passing time, but when I do something like studying I’m all good. I also found out that there’s a kanji practice game thing on my electronic dictionary. I’ve actually been finding out more about it lately because I’ve actually be looking at it when I’m bored. XD I love it.

Here’s a little something: If you don’t know it or do, the Japanese clean their schools. I mean there aren’t any janitors, so students do the cleaning. However, for my school, which is like a hundred years old apparently…it seems kinda pointless. The halls look just as old and grimy as they did before and don’t get me started on the nearby bathroom. No comment there. Let’s just say I refuse to go there.

Oh yeah, and those “playboys” talked to me again. XD I was sitting with my host sister waiting for chemistry to start and they popped into the room asking me if I remembered them. Kinda hard not to. Then…of all things, one of them takes a picture with me. And his phone was interesting. Of all colors, it was pink. Don’t ask me why. Definitely weird. Maybe it wasn’t his…? Idk. I thought it was funny. And just so people know, yeah, they are good looking. Not going to lie. And another thing about them happened at lunch. My host sister had asked me if I wanted to eat ramen at a shop that isn’t as good as my host sister’s part time job, but cheap or go to Family Mart (convenience store) and get food there. I agreed on Family Mart, and as we were walking there, the “playboys” were going to the ramen shop. XD Oh, the irony if I had picked the second option. I almost wonder what would’ve happened if I’d done ramen, but whatever. Doesn’t really matter. 😛

Oh! I just got done watching Slumdog Millionaire in Japanese. Of course…some parts were still in Hindi (is that right…?) with English AND Japanese subtitles, but other parts were just Japanese. Made the movie look kinda funny if you asked me. but it all worked out. The movie was really good, too. Very epic.

I’m thoroughly convinced that Japanese people eat more than I do. XD My family always seems to be eating more often that I need to and eat more at that. If you say you’re a little hungry they give you a feast pretty much. And I don’t think it’s one of those things that are overdone just because I’m here because they eat it all clean without a problem while I can’t finish half the time. XD

But, speaking of food, my host dad made yakitori and some other various BBQ things downstairs. At a lot of yummy food. 😀 And, while shopping today I got a carton of apple juice (among other wonderful things). Not going to lie, but that stuff’s beastly. I could live off of it. Or any kind of juice really…

Also bought summore bread. It was 22\ cheaper. XD So it was even more cheap and wonderful~

Oh yeah. Speaking of money, according to the LL teacher Okinawa’s the poorest prefecture in Japan…? I find that a little hard to believe since things still seem expensive here…but whatever works I guess. Maybe it’s just me.
The only thing I’ve found that’s cheaper here than it is in America are manga books and some shoes. Those are like…half the price they are in America. And their verison of the dollar shop are cheap too, but that’s kinda the point if you think about it. 😛

Can’t think of much else to so. I dun wanna sit here babbling about things I bought today, so I won’t. But there was a preformance of this superhero from Okinawa at Jusco. It was kinda funny because there were people sitting and standing to see it EVERYWHERE. All these little kids and their tots and such… Crazy.

And on a final note…I’m finding it hard to find things to bring back for people. Even myself. xD So…just so people know, if I didn’t bring something back for someone it’s because I couldn’t think/find anything. I’m trying though!

So, once again I’ve been lazy and not posted for a couple days…but I’m here now so hush up you! I’m enjoying myself. 😛

Two days ago was testing again, so I went to the LL room and hung out with the English teacher there. We made “mashed potatoes” out of these fry snack things. Apparently it’s some sort of cultural thing she learned from watching the other teachers. And it was SO GOOD. No joke. Otherwise I just studied and looked at school stuff. Not that I really learned anything other than what peeps are school are doing now that I can’t do here. Didn’t want to haul my textbooks here. Plus, I don’t think that would’ve worked out too well with the weight limits and how I don’t wanna have five thousand bags.

Anyway, yeah. Talked to people and…surprisingly enough boys talked to ME. WHOA. Funny thing is, those boys were what my host sister called playboys from the class nextdoor. XD So pretty much I got talked to by playboys. Funny~

That night I watched CSI New York with my host family and also hung out a little bit with my host…niece? Idk how that works. She’s the daughter of one of my older host brothers. (The one that kinda looks like an older version of MatsuJun.)

BTW, potato butter flavored chis are awesome. XD

Moving on to yesterday~

Yesterday afternoon I went out with my host family to eat Chinese food at this restaurant where the owner was my host dad’s underclassman in high school. The food was also really good. 😀 It is most of the time here. SO TASTEY. After that my host sister and I went to take the monorail into another part of Naha and we met up with other friends to do karaoke. IT WAS SO FUN! I thought it’d be embarassing, but it wasn’t when you’re singing with other people and just having a good time. Sung things like Arashi and KAT-TUN. 😀 And someone put backstreet boys on the list so I wound up singing that, too…

After karaoke we went walking around Kokusai Doori to find a certain PuriKura place. And not going to lie, that place is way busier at night. It was cool though and PuriKura was fun! I’ve never done it before, so it was a really good experience. Pluuuuus, I spotted a really hot guy. XD Funny thing is, I was going to take a picture of these cute scissors they had at the PuriKura place when I noticed the guy standing outside, so I angled my camera differently and got his picture…kinda. XD Makes me laugh~

Anyway, after karaoke everyone split ways to go home and my host sister and I took the bus to Jusco where I got a really cute skirt such. Also got some bread to try since it was cheap. Ate melon bread for the first time. 😀 IT’S SO TASTEY! When we got home I also had some of my host mom’s curry…WHICH IS THE BEST. I love it! *-* After that I watched An Unfinished Life with my host parents. It wasn’t a bad movie at all if you asked me.

Then….for today we went to the more American part of Okinawa where the bases are and stuff. We ate at this buffet kinda place and went to see the area where my host family used to live. Apparently it’s a countryside-ish area…but I didn’t believe that part. When I think countryside I think a lot of open space and that’s pretty much what Okinawa lacks. XD But it was cool. Went to the beach where Americans first landed in Okinawa, wandered around on the beach and saw some interesting animals at this ranch place as we drove by.

Now then…I’m off to watch the Arashi DVD my oldest host brother lent me. 😀 (It’s not actually his DVD by my host niece’s…but he was the one who brought it over.)

But on a random note…I really don’t wanna leave. It doesn’t really feel like I have to either. Makes me feel like I can stay if I want to, which, not going to lie, I think I’d agree to that in a heart beat. I love my host family and Okinawa is just pure awesomeness. 😀 ‘Nuff said.

I just had an epiphany that I can just write in another window that’s not the internet so it won’t close on me… Wow. Took me long enough. I also discovered where the appropriate apostrophe is. POINTS FOR ME.

Anyway. I was kinda annoyed at school today. See, here in Okinawa, nearly every site known to man is BLOCKED. Not even kidding. Some pages, Facebook for examle, are read only. And guess what? WordPress is too. I didn’t realize that though until after I’d tried to write a blog post. That is to say that I DID write one and it was fairly long if you asked me and then it went up in smoke on me right when I was going to post it. WHYYYYYY?! It was SO annoying. I was about ready to kill the computer. XD

I dunno if I want to attempt rewriting everything I did early, but I can try I suppose.

Yesterday was my first day of school. Got up at about six thirty (translation: too early) and took the bus to the terminal and then walked from there. From there, it was interesting. I said more good mornings that I’ve probably said in a year. XD Had to say it to every teacher that passed, and since my host sister and I were wandering around looking for one of the English teachers, we ran into a lot of them. Also did an introduction in front of all the teachers at their morning meeting. Their reaction? Totally priceless. Some of them suddenly sat back in their seats and I even got a round of applause. Overall, they were VERY surprised. Reminds me of when I first met my host family. XD Japanese people seem so surprised that I can speak Japanese and that my pronunciation is very natural.

After that we went to class and things go interesting. As in, during breaks people randomly came up to the glass window next to me to open it and randomly start talking to me in broken English until they realized I could speak Japanese. That was pretty funny. I got called things from sexy to cute. XD FUNNY. Even more funny is the fact that the boys in my class REFUSE to talk to me. They’re JUST that shy. Apparently in other classes it’s not so bad, but in mine apparently the guys just don’t talk to the girls. Very pitiful if you asked me. 😛 The only time the boys talked to me, and it wasn’t by choice, was when we went to the LL (Language Laboratory) room for some English practice and the teachers dragged them over to me and made them talk. Talk about stick in the mud.

For other classes I had gym where we watched the ending of a movie. I swear I’ve seen a preview for it before, but I can’t remember what it was called. It has an actor from Nodame though. Then in biology we learned about optical illusions and parts of the eyeball. Don’t even known the things on the diagram were in English. Well, I know the names, but not what they do or anything. I’ve come to the conclusion today after looking at my host sister’s bio book that biology here is WAY more extensive and goes into more depth. But yeah, that was bio. Then there was lunch which was also interesting. A lot of students by bento from this batch that comes in during lunch, and my host sister and I went to get them yesterday. There were a TON of students trying to get them, so I stood off to the side with a friend of my host sister’s while she bought them. Also got stared at a lot and had people who’d poke their friends and them point me out. Not that I didn’t see that or anything. -sarcasm- But I did spy some cute boys. 😛 There just aren’t any in my class… -crycry-

After lunch was Classical Japanese where we did nothing. I just studied and the students looked at some paper to study from for the tests they’re having. Then was home room where they moved seats. Even THAT is different in Japan. Students take the desk with them… I think I did that in elementary school, but it seems kinda obnoxious to do that in high school. Also very noisy.

Went home after school via bus and enjoyed a rather nice evening. 😀 Tried watching A Civil Action (Japanese dubbed) with my host dad, but that didn’t work out. It was rather boring. My host sister burned some CDs for me. I dunno if I said this before, but my host family has birds. Four of them. (Two dogs, too.) One of the birds gets let out every now and then and likes to sit on my older host sister’s shoulder. It also likes to avoid me when I try to touch it. Buuuuuut, it sat on my shoulder last night! 😀 OMG. AWESOME.

Today was alright. Spent most of my time in the LL room with the the foreinger teacher there. Studied and talked. Apparently she (who speaks very little Japanese) took the JLPT Level 3 last winter. She was cool to talk to though. At lunch and what not I talked with my host sister’s friends a little bit while they tried to explain things to me like blood types and horoscope kinda things. Funny funny~

Oh yeah, I actually waved at some boys. XD They’re so shy it makes it funny. Some of them gave me a funny reaction. Definitely funny! Some girls in my class also want to hang out with me outside of school and do something like karaoke or purikura.

After school I went with my host sister to Jusco and got a cake. It was sooooo yummy!

Now, I think I’ve redeemed myself by recounting all that. My work is done! 😛

Anyway, today was pretty cool. My host dad took me to the castle of the kings that Okinawa used to have. Took lots of pictures and went wandering around by myself for a bit. Saw the same cute guy like four times. xD The museum in the castle was kinda interesting. I had to take my shoes off for part of it and couldn`t take pictures or video in part of it. It was all good though. 😀

Oh yeah! Before that we went to this huge shopping center and went to this sushi shop that`s really famous here because it`s so tastey. Personally…I don`t think me and the kinds of sushi I ate really agreed. Tasted funky. Not to mention I wasn`t that hungry… Which, speaking of that, it`s becoming apparent to me that Japanese people eat more than I do on average. Makes it kind of funny I suppose since…I dunno, you`d think that little Japanese people don`t eat as much as they do. But the food`s pretty good overall.

After all that I came home and hanged out with my host sister. We started watching a Touhoushinki DVD with lives and stuff. 😛 Jejung is SO CUTE. I think I might just have to buy the poster of him from Jusco. MIGHT JUST.

Tonight there was a show on with Arashi doing this quiz show with two other teams. Not that`s really important or anything, but MatsuJun surprised me. Not going to lie, but I`ve always thought of him as the idiot of the group. Yes, Tanu, I know he isn`t. He proved it. 😛 They were kind of in trouble at one point and MatsuJun finished the entire part of the quiz show by himself. Aiba was kinda silly though because of one answer he did… Haha~ Aiba.

Well, unless I can no longer tell time or anything, today was New Years Day. 😀 A very nice day indeed. I love it how I always think the weather here is so nice since it`s not too hot and it`s not freezing and everyone here`s freezing and saying it`s so cold. 😛 Okinawan winter weather`s my kind of weather. Not going to lie.

I went to Jusco again today with my host sister and wasted some time looking at clothes and what not. That is, where we had our epic battle with an ATM. Well, maybe it was more like we couldn`t get it to work right in Japanese or English which made it kind of pathetic. We got it though, so it`s all good!

After that, my host dad took me to the local temple for New Year things. It was pretty cool if you asked me. 😛 I had fun and it was a good reason to walk around. After that was my family`s New Years party. All my host brothers and their families and my host dad`s brother and son came. It was pretty cool. 😀 I had fun. We watched this New Years show, and Cito, if you`re reading this, Eiji`s on the show I`m watching now (along with other main characters from the Nodame movie) and they showed him earlier, so if I don`t remember to tell you about it later, let me know. Anyway, it was awesome. Played with the little kids and one of them is THE CUTEST EVER. NOT LYING. HE IS. He`s like…two. AND SO CUTE. OMG. Totally took video and pictures of him.

I think that`s all. I feel like there was something else I was going to say, but I`ve forgotten.